Diagnosed anxiety

[anxyinmypantsy]

Can I ask what kind of things you do/ don’t do because of your anxiety?

I am diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder and I was wondering in what kind of way it affects others?

I know the obvious things like excessive worry, etc, but was interested to know others.. for example.. I can’t sit on the top of the bus incase it falls over. I hate the car wash incase I drown. I have to walk down all isles of the supermarket. I don’t like to sit in the middle, I have to sit at the edge.

How are you affected?

I get a lot of physically symptoms. Someone’s i don’t even know what’s causing it, especially if I’m not really doing anything.

I get chest pains, heart palpitations, diarrhoea, eye twitches, inability to take a deep breath, irritability.

Lots of things I’m anxious about, probably too many to mentions. Just a few are, losing my children (abduction mainly even though they are getting older now), flying (I guess that’s normal), being late, not being organised or prepared etc etc.

Sorry I didn’t check for typos!

I've had anxiety my whole life, at different times its stopped me doing various things. Most of the practical fears, I've managed to overcome in my head but new ones do pop-up.

I've had a lot of bus anxiety over the years, and for a couple of periods not been able to get on at all. I'm generally ok at the moment but I do get paranoid about terrorists. A few months ago I convinced myself a man had a bomb strapped to him and panicked so much I had to get off the bus well before my stop. It's happened again since but I've managed to rationalize my fear and keep calm enough to stay on.

I also get very anxious about lack of toilets, another reason I hate long bus journeys.

At one point many years ago my general anxiety got so bad I became agoraphobic, and barely set foot outside for 6 months.

Most of my anxiety now is about my children

I have GAD too, stemming from growing up in a street with violent and antisocial neighbours. As a result, I'm terrified of offending neighbours as an adult, despite living in a different area. I can't answer the door. Hearing someone knock when I'm not expecting someone makes me tremble and sweat. Unfortunately, I've no option but to get major work done on the house. In the past month, I've had architects, builders etc on several occasions. It's caused chest pains, shortness of breath, cold sweats, racing heart which is terrifying but passes. Started taking citalopram again, which helps.

Health anxiety is my main source of worry.
Currently terrified waiting for colposcopy for abnormal smear.

I avoid anything about health issues, if ads come on TV for eg cancer charities I immediately switch over. I also avoid the doctors unless I'm very very poorly.

Its horrible as anxiety is ultimately futile and saps the joy out of life.

I didn’t have anxiety until after my kids were born and I hate admitting I suffer with it. Literally nobody in real life knows I have it (and is never admit it to anyone) but it makes me feel like I’m going to be sick or my heart is going to explode. I drive as little as possible and stick to roads that I know as most of my problem is worrying about various things to do with travel. I don’t really struggle with much else but I have a friend who lost her son in a car accident and I guess it affected me more than I realised.

Loads of things....
Conferences, parties etc, big events with lots of people
Phone calls (especially to the bank-Agh)
I can't do public speaking
Terrified of travelling (planes, trains, buses are slightly more tolerable)
Staying away from home makes me uncomfortable
Fuelling my car up makes me feel anxious and speaking to people at the checkout.
Driving on routes that I haven't used before is an issue.

Basically life is hard due to my combination of GAD and social anxiety disorder.

I don't drive much (one short journey so far this year) but can't bring myself to sell my car as it would feel like giving in to the anxiety/depression. Socialise with anyone apart from my DP as I'm boring and assume I'll be rejected if I invite someone to meet up. Have children as I'll inevitably pass my anxiety onto them as my mum did to me. Go to the doctor to ask for help with said anxiety as I've previously been told I can't be that bad because I manage to hold down a part time job.

I’ve had a few bad bouts where I couldn’t drive, watch anything on tv remotely stressful, at its worst it was just awful to be alone (and I usually am quite happy alone).

Mine manifests via OCD (diagnosed by a professional and being treated, not just saying that). I have to repeatedly check anything which might cause a fire or allow intruders into the house. Sometimes leaving the house in the morning can take quite a long time.

It also means I have difficulty dealing with mistakes and set backs in all aspects of life. Tiny errors at work which may seem like nothing to most people will cause me to break out in a cold sweat and if I make a mistake at work I go into an outright blinding, mentally paralising panic, even if it's something that's easily fixable.

It affects my work further because I need to check, check, check, double check, and check again, because I am terrified of making a mistake. Emails, documents, forms, everything. I can sit there reading and re-reading a 4 line email for 10 mins to make sure it is perfect. Obviously this slows me down.

I have absolutely no confidence in myself or my skills.

I catastrophise things, eg if I see the tiniest crack on walls or the ceiling, I think the house is about to fall down on my head.
I don't like to speak in front of more than a couple of people and the thought of public speaking makes me want to bolt for the door.
I can't let go of mistakes I've made in the past, usually mistakes I've made at work. Even 25 years on, I still cringe and want to cry at the embarrassment I felt and the inconvenience I caused to people. I worry constantly that I will do something wrong again, and I don't even work anymore!
On the odd occasion that I'm able to go out, I worry people are looking at me, judging me or laughing at me and it makes my chest feel tight and my throat feel like it's closing up. I think that people feel I'm boring and don't want to have anything to do with me.
I don't drive much at all now, but I worry that I won't be able to get parked near the door of where I'm going (I'm physically disabled) and that I will fall (which I do frequently).
I must drive my poor husband to distraction as I'm a terrible passenger; I'm so scared of being in an accident.

I take 40mg of Fluoxetine each day and I did feel it was having an effect for a while, but lately I feel the anxiety getting worse. I'm very scared about what will happen after Brexit, for instance.

It's a horrible condition, isn't it. We know exactly what we're doing, but we can't stop it. I try to distract myself, eg when I think of those work mistakes, I then try to remind myself that this made me very conscientious at work etc, but it's not easy.

When my GAD was at its worst, it affected pretty much everything. I found it difficult to be around other people, travel anywhere, or just generally leave the house.

It was incredibly difficult to deal with, but I’m glad to say that I have been getting a lot better recently.

I know you’re not asking for advice on how to cope, but I’m going to share what worked for me anyway, just in case it’s of some use.

First of all, definitely ask your GP for advice on how to manage your anxiety, if you haven’t already done so. I decided to treat my anxiety without the use of prescription medicine, which to my surprise was something my GP was really supportive off. He gave me a lot of useful advice on how to manage it.

Exercise has helped me a lot, but for me it has to be exercise first thing in the morning, as anything later than that just doesn’t have the same effect.

CBD oil is great for taking the edge of things. It’s not something I use all the time, but if there’s anything coming up that I know is likely to trigger it, I sometimes use it as a precaution. You can buy it online or in Holland & Barrett’s

The best advice I read is to try not to fight the anxiety. It’s easier said than done, but if you can teach yourself not to be scared or frustrated by those feelings, things do get a lot easier.

And most important of all, try to be kind to be yourself. Living with anxiety is tough, but it’s nothing to be ashamed off. Good luck

At the moment it’s pretty manageable. I can get a bit snappy with my husband when things are thrown on me unexpectedly. I really hate having people in the house- even close friends and family. I’m one of those people Mumsnet hates since I never open the door or answer the phone I’m always early for everything, which is a positive thing to come out of my anxiety. Other than that, things are pretty ‘normal’ for me lately.

At its worst I was too scared to speak- even to my husband- and I don’t even remember my wedding because I was in such a bad way. No alcohol involved, just very unwell mentally.

I'm finding this very interesting to read. I'm increasingly feeling that I have some form of anxiety. I've been having heart palpitations on and off for a couple of months. Small things that shouldn't be an issue have started to really bother me. Finding work really stressful and have lost confidence in my own abilities, although I feel work is generally pretty unsupportive of my role. Worry about unlikely senarios. Panic in driving situations when I used to be ok.

Currently debating whether to visit the gp. It's not actually stopping me doing anything though, and life is pretty full on with full time job, two young children, house move currently going through. Could just be stress.

Thank you to those who have posted their experiences.

Georgie: I get chest pains, heart palpitations, diarrhoea, eye twitches, inability to take a deep breath, irritability.

Me too and sudden pounding headache. A pain, isn't it?

This is a very interesting thread, I'm so in sympathy with most other posters.

My symptoms were very similar to @OwlinaTree's. especially the panicky feelings and complete lack of confidence in my abilities work-wise. It really held me back for a while.

The good news is that treatment really can work. I was diagnosed with GAD a couple of years ago, had some counselling and have been on AD's ever since. The symptoms have massively reduced and although I sill feel anxiety sometimes, it's so much better than before.

So anyone who's posting who hasn't sought treatment, please do it. It could make a huge difference.

I get very physical symptoms, like palpitations and a racing heart. When I first developed symptoms 4 years ago, I struggled being out socially. I remember being out with a friend and all of a sudden I felt very hot and panicky and I just had to get out of the building. Once I was in the cool night air, I felt much better. Later on I was out with her again and we went to the cinema and not long into the film, my heart started racing and I felt really hot - I tried for a little while to calm myself but I just couldn’t cool myself down and I had to leave and go home again. I have no idea what caused my anxiety but it’s been with me ever since. I went to see my Doctor who put me on a beta blocker and referred me to cardiology, where I had to wear a heart monitor for 7 days. In the end they couldn’t find anything physically wrong with me so put it down to anxiety. I also developed psoriasis and IBS - my stomach seems to be very affected by my anxiety.

These days I find I just worry more about things than I used to, which drives me absolutely mad! I still get occasional palpitations and anxious tummies but I understand now that they are part of how my body reacts to my anxiety and I try not to worry about them specifically (easier said than done!).

💐 for everyone else battling with anxiety.

I end up frozen with indecision, it takes me forever to leave the house if I manage to leave at all. I got to the swimming pool and saw it was going to be busy and drove away, I'm barely socialising at all.

I get physical symptoms, palpitations, pins and needles, shortness of breath, dizziness. I also have health anxiety which is fun, I currently have diagnosed myself with heart failure, brain cancer, bowel cancer and early onset dementia. It is complicated since I do have some real physical disorders so has my shortness of breath lately been asthma flaring up, a chest infection or anxiety? Taking my blue inhaler sets off palpitations which makes me more anxious. I have diabetes and sometimes have thought I'm having a hypo when it's anxiety symptoms and other times I've written of a hypo as anxiety. Diabetes can also lead to nasty complications and although I'm up to date on my routine care I still convince myself I'm going blind or going to get my leg amputated.

It was under control for a while but a drop in antidepressants has sent it out of control again, got an appointment on Fri to hopefully get them changed again.

It's hard work being in my brain right now.

I have had GAD and social anxiety since I was 8. I have learned much better coping skills over time so am a reasonably functional person but it still affects me deeply.
I procrastinate a lot. I struggle to prioritise so can end up doing a lot with few visible results. I binge eat.
I avoid going out and social situations.
I have failed to find a decent career or progress in the one I have despite being very good at my job.
I overcheck things.

I'm also quite rigid in my thinking when making plans so miss obvious opportunities completely.